Monday, March 23, 2015

3/23/2015

But now, O Lord, thou art our father; and WE are the CLAY , and thou our potter; and we all are the work of THY HAND....~ Isaiah 64:8
      I am clay in the master Potter's (god's) hand. being slowly molded into some masterpiece that he has in store... Sometimes it hurts...A lot and it's not easy. 
      I once took a pottery class. After watching various students I thought it would be relatively simple, but this "simple" craft was much more difficult. After many tries I  manged to center the clay and than attempted to make something that resembled a pot. It was much harder than I had originally planned. After many classes, a lot of time and much help from the teacher  I created a piece that I was very proud of. 
      While Reflecting and pondering on this experience I came upon this gem of a scripture found in Isaiah 64:8
         " But now, O Lord, thou art our father; and WE are the CLAY , and thou Our Potter; and we all are the work of THY HAND."
      This past couple weeks, to be honest, I feel like I have been clay being slowly molded and sculptured. These weeks have been really hard for various reasons. I'm still working on catching that vision of what the master Potter's vision is for me but I know the master potter. and I trust him. I think that is something that we are all figuring out in this life and that is what we can become...catching that vision.  I know I am still working on seeing that vision but when we have the master help us, we can become far more than we can if we were to do it alone.   
Opening my Easter package.

Meeting my Canadian cousins for the first time...Christie (4th cousin), Sophie (daughter) and 2 of the 3 Christie's sons. 

Monday, March 9, 2015

3/9/2015

Bonjour!  Bonjour! Bonjour!
       What a week!   Yesterday-funniest thing happened. As you all know it was Daylight Saving....we went to sleep thinking that our phone would automatically update and we had set our alarm clocks as well. So we woke up and Sister Lindquist was working on her talk for Sacrament Meeting and I was reading the scriptures when we receive a phone call from Megan- that went like this:
       Megan- "Hey what are you guys doing?" 
        Me- "Oh were studying. What about you?" 
        Megann- " I"m at church, sitting with your investigator right now, church is starting!"
      Talk about an adrenaline rush! I was like Sister Lindquist we have to go! And poor Sister Lindquist was freaking out because she had to speak!
     So we rushed over to the church (luckily it was like less than 5 minutes away) and made it in right before they sang the second verse of the sacrament song. The talk went great and the rest of the day too:) 
     Also, I took on a challenge to read the Book of Mormon in French and while explaining this to Michelle (who used to teach French) she read a couple chapters with us! Which was really an exciting thing because we had tried to read it with her in the past but she told us it was too difficult for us. But after reading a few verses out loud I felt so proud when she turned to me and said, "Not too bad, not too bad."
      We had a couple of lessons that were just miracles. There are rare moments when you teach and your just pore your soul into it, hoping that it makes sense to them and that they feel the spirit. And than you turn to them and ask them a question and they answer it perfect or they explain it to you in the most amazing way, that you just have to take a moment and capture the feeling in the lesson because it is so precious. That happened twice this week. One lesson on baptism with the dead with a recent convert, and another with the Restoration with an investigator who had previously been taught the Restoration twice and finally said, "Oh I get it now." 
      We had an amazing Ward Relief Society Activity where we leaned to knit with our hands:) Two investigators came to that:) 
     We had an investigator who had formally felt really uncomfortable in really big buildings with lots of people who came to church! After church we stopped by his house to see how he liked it and he was like, "I liked it, it was really fun!" than he was like, " I need to start reading the Book of Mormon again. I heard about a potluck next week, can I come to that? Oh and can you guys bring me a Bible." :)
     Then that same day my testimony of fasting was strengthened immensely. We have another investigator who is great, really great. He has in the past had a really hard time finding work these past couple months, so when we saw him in the week we suggested that we all pray and on Saturday night start a fast. He agreed. We  stopped by for the lesson and he wasn't home. So we fasted for him anyways. The next day at church we were told that the reason he wasn't at church was because he had gotten a job! It was truly the Lord blessing him. It was a big miracle after having months of no work.
​It was a huge miracle! What a blessing! Fasting is powerful and I feel so thankful to know about it! 
Sister Lindquist made this sign for me!
It was a really great week! Hope all is well back home:D
Love,
Soeur Rawlings
RS Activity


Made this scarf during the Relief Society Activity.